2026 trips

 I feel like I need to post at least once a year in this blog to keep it going.  I haven't done a lot of birding this year, but we did go on three short trips.

We made our annual trip to Tucson to visit my sister and see western birds.

This little Verdin was my favorite bird of the week while I was there.  His sweet little yellow face was so cheerful.  He likes to puncture the orange flowers and suck all the nectar out.

The Gambel's Quail male

A cardinal atop the saguaro cactus next door.

Costa's Hummingbird at the top and the Verdin below.  Costa's is a large hummingbird and has a purple mask.

The daily sunset.

A visit to Sweetwater is always on the agenda. 

The Vermillion Flycatcher male above and the female below.

Cardinal and Gila Woodpecker on the Ocotillo cactus

We drove up Mt. Lemon one day and I saw my only new bird, a Steller's Jay.

Broad-billed Hummingbird

One of the cute Antelope Ground squirrels that my sister hates.

Saw many more birds but they were mostly all the same as past years and I have posted them many times.

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In June we spent some time driving through Iowa and Wisconsin along the Mississippi River.  I didn't see a lot of birds, but it was a great trip and included stops at The National Pearl Button Museum, The House on the Rock, and driving by some Frank Lloyd Wright buildings including his Taliesin House.

I did see a lot of Pelicans and some cormorants in the Mississippi wherever there were locks and dams.

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August took us on another short trip to northern Ohio with relatives.

Visiting the beach in Huron where I spent my childhood vacations there were lots of gulls and an egret resting on the rocks.

Saw lots of cormorants on the river and at a nature spot.

Marblehead lighthouse.

More gulls and some terns

And a Great Blue Heron with gull friend.

That's it for 2026 so far!

I don't know what changes Blogger has made but it took me about an hour to get these photos uploaded!  Excruciatingly painful to work with!

Arizona February 2025...post #3 Sweetwater and Catalina State Park

  A trip to Tucson for birds always includes Sweetwater.  It is a water treatment facility with a wetlands area.  This year there was plenty of water and things were more open then usual.  They had burned off the tall grasses making it easier to see at this time.

This was exciting!  A Green Heron was eating a frog.  We could see it had something but I didn't know what until we got the photos on the computer.  Mike took some of these.  I was having trouble seeing over the reeds.  Not sure who took what.

What a mouthful!

He struggled with it for quite a while before he managed to swallow it!

Someone had reported an egret but misidentified it.  A Snowy Egret, I believe.

With the water areas opened up it was easier to see all of these birds.

Common Moorhen, but not common to me.

I think this is a Pintail with its head tucked in. 

I knew this was a bug eating bird but finally found out it is the female Vermillion Flycatcher.  I've never seen the female before!

Vermillion Flycatcher male.

Mallards

There was a large area with shallow water that had 100's of ducks in it.

I know I saw Mallards, Shovelers, Teal, Wigeon, Pintail, and Black ducks

American Wigeon

These last two are a Ruddy Duck.  Mike took one of these.

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We also stopped by Catalina State Park and I picked up another new bird...the following 3 photos.

I had to check the Merlin app to identify this one.  A Rufous Winged Sparrow.  The face and throat marks were very distinctive.

In the same area I found a Ruby Crowned Kinglet that was grooming itself and willing to show off the ruby crown marking.

Ground squirrels

Just as we were driving out of the park we saw some large birds in a tree.  Meadowlarks!  What a nice surprise.  I hope they are western Meadowlarks because that would be another new bird.  They get both Eastern and Western Meadowlarks there so I don't know.  Merlin says Western so that is what I want to believe!

Arizona February 2025...post #2

 A trip to my sister's house in Tucson, Arizona is always a relaxed bird filled vacation.  Her back yard is a perfect place to watch birds every day and I can see a lot without even having to go anywhere.  All my usual favorites showed up along with a few new birds I had not seen before.  I'll basically focus on western birds.  I'm sorry they are mostly feeder shots but that is the easiest to get.

I no longer see the large numbers of Gambel's Quail that used to frequent the backyard, but I did see one pair this year.  The male browsing in the grass.

This was a new bird for me....the Black Throated Sparrow.  It came a couple of different days.

Abert's Towhee.  A very drab noisy ground feeder that will also come to the suet.

Not a western bird....Cardinal....but I thought it was cute sitting on the bunny.

The Lesser Goldfinch male.

Curved Billed Thrasher

Bewick's Wren....another new one for me!  It came each day I was there.

Bewick's Wren again.  Very perky with a long tail

The more common Cactus Wren.  Much larger.  Makes its nests in a Cholla cactus usually.

Cactus Wren at the suet.

The Gilla Woodpecker spends most of the time eating suet, but this year he was also fond of the oranges on the little orange tree.

Gilla Woodpecker gutting an orange.

The hummingbirds are always fun to watch.  This is an Anna's hummingbird and it came most days, so I hung out a feeder to try to get better photos.  There were not many flowers at this time.

Anna's with its red face mask.  I also saw the Costa's with a purple face mask.

The Phainopepla male. A beautiful black bird with red eyes.  The female is brown.

Another Lesser Goldfinch male.

Another Phainopepla male

I call this one "White throated Sparrow saving the gnome from Godzilla"

The Verdin is a perky little gray bird with yellow face that likes making holes at the base of flowers and eating the nectar.  The trumpet vine it loved was killed by a packrat so it is making do with suet cakes until other flowers begin to bloom.

Such a cute little bird!

Enough yard birds.